As a film preservationist and curator specializing in experimental cinema, the physical nature of the film medium plays an inevitable role in my thought process about my work. Film is made of stuff - the image is inscribed with light in a photographic emulsion and can be seen with the eye, touched with the skin. Many artists in the history of experimental cinema, and even continuing today, have explored the physical qualities of the medium itself as part of their process. As a result, my work to conserve and restore these films must employ an awareness and thoughtfulness about these ideas and intentions.

This presentation and discussion will illustrate and propose various ideas and information about my work and process, and the significance that the materiality of film plays in it. Various examples will be shared from my archival and curatorial practice that illustrate the variety of ways that materiality of film can be significant to my process, including artists such as Stan Brakhage, David Rimmer, Chick Strand, Morgan Fisher, and others.

Mark Toscano is a filmmaker, curator, and film preservationist based in Los Angeles. Since 2003, he has worked at the Academy Film Archive, where he specializes in the curation, conservation, and preservation of artists’ films. He works with the collections of over 100 filmmakers, and has overseen the conservation and preservation of hundreds of films, including work by Stan Brakhage, Barbara Hammer, Chick Strand, Tacita Dean, Penelope Spheeris, the Whitney brothers, Gus Van Sant, Pat O’Neill, Suzan Pitt, and many others. He has curated and presented programs at numerous venues, including MoMA, Arsenal, Eye Filmmuseum, Tate Modern, and festivals in Rotterdam, London, Oberhausen, Zagreb, Bangalore, and elsewhere. He is a programmer with Los Angeles Filmforum, and has lectured at various universities on experimental film and archiving, as well as teaching the History of Experimental Animation at CalArts.